“Yeah?” Joey cried. “Maybe I’ll go find the sheriff and tell him what you did, then
you
can rot in jail!”
“The sheriff won’t let you have this money, you fool. Even the Brannings were gonna take it from you. He’ll just put you back with some other foster family. Go tell him, I don’t care. I don’t need you anymore.”
Something exploded in Aaron’s heart, bursting out in rage. No way! Edith was not gonna pull this on him! She took off into the thickest part of the crowd, but Aaron wasn’t going to let her get away. “Catch her, Joey!” he cried as he ran after her, pushing people out of his way.
“Aaron!” Sarah screamed.
He looked back at his little sister. She had fallen, and the crowd was so thick that he feared she’d be trampled. He stopped. “Get her, Joey!”
Joey ran after Edith, fighting his way through the crowd.
Aaron picked Sarah up, keeping his eyes on Edith. Then the worst thing Aaron could think of happened. A big guy who looked like Magic Johnson came barreling through the parking lot, grabbed the money out of Edith’s hand, and ran off so fast that no one would ever catch him.
Edith’s scream pierced through the noise. “He took my money! I’ve been robbed! Stop him! Somebody stop him!”
But the man’s long legs carried him out of the area and to the road faster than anyone could react. Joey froze. Aaron came up behind him, his eyes wide as he watched their money disappearing down the highway.
“It’s gone,” Joey said in a raspy voice. “He took our money.”
Edith was screaming, grabbing people, trying to get them to help her. It served her right. He supposed it might serve
them
right too, but there was nothing he could do about it now. The rage that had been beating through his throat suddenly turned to sorrow. For the first time in his life he felt helpless.
Tears ran down Joey’s dirty face. “She double-crossed us. She lied. We shoulda known.” He shoved Aaron, knocking him back. “I
told
you, Aaron. But no, you were so smart.”
Aaron didn’t fight back.
“We shoulda stayed with the Brannings. At least they were gonna take care of us with the money. But now they’ll never take us back. You think you know everything, Aaron, but you don’t, you stupid idiot!”
Aaron hated himself for crying, but he couldn’t stop the tears. He just stood there, letting his brother’s words hammer him. Sarah’s wounded cries only made it worse.
“You told us to trust you,” Joey ranted. “You said you knew what you were doing. But you don’t, Aaron!”
Aaron slapped the tears rolling down his face. “I’ll get it back. I’ll find out who that man is, and we’ll steal it back from him and more.”
“How? We don’t have a gun any more. We don’t have
anything
!”
“Aaron!” Aaron heard his name and turned. Doug and Kay Branning were rushing toward them.
But being found didn’t even matter anymore. Even the Brannings would leave them alone as soon as they knew they’d lost the money.
They were of no use to anyone now.
K
AY RAN TOWARD THE
G
ATLIN KIDS
. L
ITTLE SARAH STOOD
crying with bleeding, skinned knees, her hair stuffed up in a baseball cap. Joey and Aaron were crying too. Luke just watched them all with horror in his eyes.
She fell to her knees in front of the little girl. “Sarah, are you all right? Did you fall?”
“Uh-huh.”
Kay picked her up and pulled the cap off her head. Her curls were soaked with sweat. She pulled Sarah into a hard hug, then kissed Luke on the cheek and stooped down in front of Aaron and Joey.
“We thought we’d never find you,” she cried. “Where have you been?”
Aaron couldn’t answer.
“We’ve been listening to this idiot,” Joey said, pointing to his brother. “Doing everything he said. He had this great idea that Edith was gonna help us get our money. But she stole it from us, and then some guy stole it from
her
!”
Kay closed her eyes as the news sank in. She looked up at Doug.
He mopped his forehead with the sleeve of his shirt. “Did you know the guy? Can you describe him?”
“He was tall and fast,” Aaron bit out. “That’s all I know.”
Doug looked down at them, his eyes full of so much frustration that Aaron expected him to spit on them and walk away. But he didn’t. “Aaron, we’ll go report it to the sheriff,” Doug said. “Maybe someone around here saw it and knows who he was.”
Kay’s heart sank. These poor kids. They’d been lured and double-crossed, tricked and deceived far too often. It made her sick. She wanted to find Edith and slap her face. How dare people treat children this way? She was glad Edith’s money had been stolen. She didn’t deserve any.
“It’s okay,” Aaron snarled. “We don’t need the stinking money. I took good care of my sister and brothers before today and I can do it again. I don’t need no adults. I don’t need nothing!”
Doug’s face softened, and he looked at Kay. She brought her fingertips to her lips as tears rolled down her face. Doug ruffled Aaron’s hair. “Son, I know this is bad. But it’s not the end of the world. I want you to come home with us. It’ll be all right.”
Aaron gaped at him. “Don’t you get it? We don’t have the money. We don’t know the guy who took it. You’re not gonna get anything out of us.”
“I don’t care about the money,” Doug said. “We got our disbursement, and it’ll have to be enough.”
“But you
said
you couldn’t take care of us if we didn’t have the money,” Aaron said. “You
said
you needed it to feed us.”
Doug bent down and looked into his eyes. “Listen to me. God will provide. We’re not letting you go back on the street just because we can’t get your money. I told you in the beginning we weren’t in it for the money. It would have helped, sure. But we’ll manage.”
Kay touched his shoulder. “He’s right, Aaron. We’ll be fine.”
Aaron shook his head. “Why would you
do
that?”
“Because God loves you,” she said, “and he put that love for you in our hearts.”
Aaron looked at Doug, searching his eyes.
“It’s true, Aaron. We want to help you find your family, people who will love you and take care of you even without getting something out of it.”
Kay lifted Sarah onto her hip, and the little girl looked down at her brother. “Please, Aaron,” she said, hiccupping her sobs. “Can’t we go back?”
Kay saw the confusion on his face. “People aren’t nice for nothing,” he bit out.
Joey spoke up. “But they haven’t been mean to us, Aaron, and they don’t make us work any harder than their own kids. We got a nice comfortable bed to sleep in at night and food and clean water.” He lifted his chin, brooking no debate. “I’m going back.”
Aaron looked from Kay to Doug, as if giving them one final assessment.
“What are you waiting for?” Joey cried. “Maybe they’re telling the truth. Maybe they’re just good people!”
“Please, Aaron.” Kay reached down and touched his face, wiped the tears from his cheek. “We want to help you, son. Come home with us.”
Aaron couldn’t seem to speak, but slowly he nodded his head, clearly too tired to fight anymore.
“W
HAT A DAY!
” K
AY FELL INTO BED THAT NIGHT SO EXHAUSTED
that she’d almost been too tired to change clothes. “Ten weeks ago, who would have dreamed that we would stand in line for six hours to get 150 dollars and then beg four orphaned children to come live with us?”
“These are the times we live in.” Doug pulled the sheet back and got in.
“At least we’ve convinced them to stay.”
“Don’t bet on it.”
She propped herself on an elbow and looked down at him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, they still may be planning an escape.”
“Why? They don’t have any money, and they know now that no one at the apartments is going to help them.”
“They may try to get
our
money and take off again. That’s why I’m sleeping with the money on me tonight.” He reached into the pocket of the jogging shorts he slept in and pulled out the roll of bills.
She sighed and collapsed on her pillow. “You’re right.”
“Tomorrow I’m going to the apartments to confront that Edith woman,” he said. “Maybe she knows who robbed her. At least we can tell the sheriff. It’s a long shot, but maybe he can get the money back.”
“I feel sorry for her,” Kay said. “Now she’s without anything.”
Doug just gaped at her. “Sorry for her? Are you kidding? That conniving woman exploited and abused these children. She deserves everything that happened … and jail too.”
Kay stared at the darkness. “I know. But think of how she feels right now. She’s got to be devastated. She’ll need help.”
“Well, she’ll benefit from our work at the apartments. But that’s all I’ll do for her.”
A moment of silence followed. Then Doug kicked off his sheet and turned on his side, facing her. He braced his elbow on his pillow and propped his head up. “You’ve changed, you know,” he said softly.
She looked up at him. His eyes were soft in the moonlight coming through the window. “What do you mean?”
He ran his knuckle along her cheekbone, outlining the shape of her face. “I mean, you’re more caring now. More selfless. You’re willing to do hard things even when it costs you.”
She smiled and turned her face to kiss his hand. “I just took the lead from you.”
“Really? Because I don’t feel all that giving right now. Sometimes I feel like I’m just going through the motions.”
She turned on her side and stroked the stubble on his jaw. “I think that’s okay. Love is more about what we do than how we feel.”
He grinned and moved closer to her. “I don’t know. Sometimes it’s about how we feel.”
He kissed her then, a long, slow, stirring kiss that reminded her of all the reasons she’d fallen in love with him. She needed that reminder.
L
ATER, WHEN THOSE BARRIERS OF WEARINESS AND DUTY HAD MELTED
away and they felt once again like beloved partners, they lay snuggled together, waiting for sleep to come.
“Doug?”
“Yeah?”
“I have a bad feeling that instead of making things better for us, the disbursement is going to make things more evil. I’m afraid there will be more robberies and murders.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too,” he said. “We’ll just have to be alert. We can’t let our guard down. But God has brought us this far.”
“I feel safe with you,” she whispered.
He reached down beside the bed and felt the rifle lying there, once again resolving to use it if he needed to.
T
HE INFUSION OF CASH INTO THE ECONOMY HAD ALLOWED
some of the stores to open in Crockett, and when the first passenger locomotive came through town the day after the disbursement, Deni went to the station and covered the story for her little newspaper.
The sight of travelers getting off the train and running into the arms of loved ones broke her heart. Craig could have come — or she could have gone to him. But that was all over now. She wondered how soon he’d get her breakup letter. When he got it, would it faze him, or would he just toss it on his desk and get back to business? It had taken him a week to read her letters before. Would he read that one in one sitting?
Things would soon get a little easier at home; her parents had bought some kerosene and made some lamps, so that they had light in more of the rooms at night. Now she could work on her paper in the quiet of her room without having to sit at the kitchen table while everyone hovered around. With four extra people in the house, it was getting a little crowded. She wished they’d been as successful with buying the chickens, though. It might be weeks before their order was filled.
To celebrate the disbursement and the striking of water in the well, Oak Hollow planned a celebration for Friday night. There wouldn’t be food there, since no one could spare any, but they had lined up every musician in the neighborhood and some outside Oak Hollow to come and play. They could dance and mingle and find some relief from the labor that had occupied every waking hour these last few weeks. Deni looked forward to the reprieve. She needed a break from her melancholy.
In the meantime, her father was bent on making Edith pay for her greed. When he went to confront the woman at Sandwood Place, Deni went with him. The conniving woman met them at the door with swollen eyes, wearing a hollow look of desperation. “What do
you
want?”
Her father’s voice was steady, though a current of anger drifted on his tone. “We understand you took the Gatlin children’s disbursements.”
“So? Not like I have anything to show for it.” She thrust out her arm. “Here, take it out of a vein if you want.”
If her father had any plans of reaming the woman, her pitiful look stopped him. “Who took it, Edith?”
“If I knew, don’t you think I’d have gotten it back by now? If I ever see that man’s face again, I’ll claw his eyes out.”
Deni grunted at Edith’s righteous indignation. “When you stole it from the kids, did you really think you’d get away with it?”
“Look, I got mine, okay? Is that what you wanted? I don’t have the money. I can’t give it back. But my life has been pure misery since then. My neighbor three doors down is dead ’cause somebody broke into her apartment the night of the disbursement and stole her money. The man in 16D got in a fight over his. Now he’s dead too. That money was supposed to help! It was supposed to make things better!”
Deni’s anger shattered, and she looked at her father. His face changed, and that hard glint in his eyes softened.
“It’s so easy for you to come telling me how to live!” Edith spat out. “I saw that house you live in! You have well water, you have food growing — ”
“That’s because we work hard, Edith,” Doug cut in. “So can you. That’s why I’ve been trying to help. If you would quit trying to figure out shortcuts and get used to the idea of hard work, you’d be able to make it.”
She tried to close the door. “I have nothing to say to you.”
Doug stopped her from closing it. “Give me their things and we’ll leave. They need their clothes, and I want the bikes they stole from us that night.”